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Why Islam Has No Concept of “Renewal” Like In Christianity: From Earth-Centrism to God-Centrism

Sailing on at Sunset by Otis S. Weber, 1884

In this essay I do not attempt to show whether the Christian or Islamic visions of the end of the world are right. My aim is to show that the lack of the concept of renewal is not a gap within its philosophy. Rather, renewal does not make sense within the Islamic vision of the titanic events that take when hour arrives. Christianity’s vision is about the fulfillment of the Old Testament’s earth-centric promises. Islam’s vision is about the outer shell of the universe cracking and shattering so that the true reality shows through, and the successful ones are taken to the land of myth and fairytales in the best of our dreams, the reality beyond reality, the “happy ever after” that is not the anti-climactic marriage of a couple.

‘I thought that Elves were all for moon and stars: but this is more Elvish than anything I ever heard tell of. I feel as if I was inside a song, if you take my meaning.’ —Sam in The Fellowship of the Ring (the book version).

The concept of “renewal” as an important eschatological (“end of the world”) event  has clear biblical roots that most Christian groups acknowledge—passages like Romans 8:19-23 (creation’s liberation from bondage), 2 Peter 3:13 (“new heavens and new earth”), Revelation 21:5 (“Behold, I make all things new”), and Isaiah (a book of the Old Testament unlike the previous New Testament ones) 65:17. These texts support some form of cosmic or creational renewal as part of God’s ultimate purposes.

See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind. (Isaiah 65:17)

In The Brothers Karamazov (to me a mere a compilation of all that was expressed in his previous novels with more emotional force) the remade world is expressed as “eternal harmony” and the final justification of all suffering. Ivan quotes (and struggles with) the belief that in the world’s finale something will occur that will atone for “all the crimes of humanity” and make it possible not only to forgive but to justify all that has happened, which is an explicit hope for a consummated, transformed cosmos.

Tolkien expresses similar hopes. He argued that the “remade world” would not simply be a return to the original, uncorrupted state (Arda Unmarred). He believed in Arda Healed. In this version, the world is remade through a “Second Music” of the Ainur. This new world is greater and more beautiful than the original precisely because it has survived, suffered, and been redeemed. In Letter 89 and his essay On Fairy-Stories, he explains that the Resurrection of Christ is the “Eucatastrophe of Man’s history.” He believed this event was the literal beginning of the “world remade.” It provides a “fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.” To Tolkien, every good story that ends well is a small echo of the ultimate renewal of the entire universe. (It was this literarily beautiful idea of a “true myth” that convinced Lewis to take Christianity seriously and ultimately led to his conversion.)

Now, if we make the effort to treat Islam as seriously as Christianity, as an intellectually coherent framework, we can work out why it has no similar concept of renewal (and in discussions with Christians to try to argue that Islam, too, believes in “renewal” is to let the Christian framework of thought take over and put Islam into a Christian arena where it is sure to lose.)

Awakening

“Renewal” does not fit within Islam’s hopes and eschatology because the very word implies the existence of a valuable thing that deserves renewal. But there’s no such thing in Islam when it comes to this universe, at least not the part of it within our ken, i.e. our “world”. The Quran’s philosophy is to see this world as “fake goods” and “illusion”, as almost a dream that one needs to wake from, something half-real that distracts from the real thing. A dream does not cry out for renewal, but for awakening.

لَقَدْ كُنْتَ فِي غَفْلَةٍ مِنْ هَذَا فَكَشَفْنَا عَنْكَ غِطَاءَكَ فَبَصَرُكَ الْيَوْمَ حَدِيدٌ

You were in a state of heedlessness from this [true reality], but today your power of sight is flawless. (50:22)

يَقُولُ يَا لَيْتَنِي قَدَّمْتُ لِحَيَاتِي

He says, "I wish I had prepared provisions [i.e. good deeds] for my life [i.e. the "real life" after death]. (89:24)

قَالَ كَمْ لَبِثْتُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ عَدَدَ سِنِينَ (112) قَالُوا لَبِثْنَا يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ فَاسْأَلِ الْعَادِّينَ (113) قَالَ إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا لَوْ أَنَّكُمْ كُنْتُمْ تَعْلَمُونَ (114) أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَاكُمْ عَبَثًا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ (115)

[God] says, "How many, of years counted, did you abide in the earth?" They say, "We abided a day or a few, so ask those who were counters." [God] says, "Indeed, you did not abide except very little, if you only knew. So did you suppose that We made you in pointless play, and that you were not going to return to Us?"

When God refers to Himself in the plural in the Quran, He is referring to Himself and His “establishment”, all those who directly and obediently serve under His authority; the heavenly military order obedient to His command and ready to His will, the military order that is archetype, the original creative artwork, that all such earthly orders hope to copy and only manage a flattery of it.

فَمَنْ زُحْزِحَ عَنِ النَّارِ وَأُدْخِلَ الْجَنَّةَ فَقَدْ فَازَ وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ

Therefore, whoever is slid away from the Fire, and is made to enter the Garden, has won success. And the life of the world is nothing but fake goods. (3:185)

وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا لَعِبٌ وَلَهْوٌ وَلَلدَّارُ الْآَخِرَةُ خَيْرٌ لِلَّذِينَ يَتَّقُونَ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ

And the life of this world is naught but play and forgetful foolery, and the Home of the Hereafter is better for the God-fearing, so will you not use your power of rational thought? (6:32)

وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا فِي الْآَخِرَةِ إِلَّا مَتَاعٌ

And the life of this world is nothing but a provision for the way [to the Hereafter].

وَمَا الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا إِلَّا مَتَاعُ الْغُرُورِ

And the life of this world is nothing but fake goods. (13:26 and 57:20)

Our Universe Thin As Paper

And among the Quranic eschatology is the “wrapping up” of the universe, showing its feeble nature in God’s Hands:

وَمَا قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدْرِهِ وَالْأَرْضُ جَمِيعًا قَبْضَتُهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ وَالسَّماوَاتُ مَطْوِيَّاتٌ بِيَمِينِهِ سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى عَمَّا يُشْرِكُونَ (67) وَنُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ فَصَعِقَ مَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَنْ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا مَنْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ ثُمَّ نُفِخَ فِيهِ أُخْرَى فَإِذَا هُمْ قِيَامٌ يَنْظُرُونَ (68) وَأَشْرَقَتِ الْأَرْضُ بِنُورِ رَبِّهَا وَوُضِعَ الْكِتَابُ وَجِيءَ بِالنَّبِيِّينَ وَالشُّهَدَاءِ وَقُضِيَ بَيْنَهُمْ بِالْحَقِّ وَهُمْ لَا يُظْلَمُونَ (69)

They have not grasped the magnitude of Allah as He truly deserves—the entire earth will be nothing but a handful clenched in His fist on the Day of Resurrection, and the heavens will be crushed and folded up in His right hand! Glorified is He, supremely elevated above whatever they dare associate with Him! Then the Trumpet will blast, and every soul in the heavens and every soul on the earth will be struck down dead—save those Allah wills. Then it will blast a second time, and instantly they will be standing, staring in terror! And the earth will blaze with the light of its Lord, and the Book will be thrown open, and the prophets and witnesses will be brought forward, and judgment will be executed between them in absolute truth, and not one of them will escape injustice. (39:67-69)

كَلَّا إِذَا دُكَّتِ الْأَرْضُ دَكًّا دَكًّا (21) وَجَاءَ رَبُّكَ وَالْمَلَكُ صَفًّا صَفًّا (22) وَجِيءَ يَوْمَئِذٍ بِجَهَنَّمَ يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَذَكَّرُ الْإِنْسَانُ وَأَنَّى لَهُ الذِّكْرَى (23) يَقُولُ يَا لَيْتَنِي قَدَّمْتُ لِحَيَاتِي (24)

No! When the earth is pounded to dust, crushed and pulverized again and again, and your Lord arrives with the angels in rank upon rank upon rank, and Hell is dragged forth on that Day—on that Day man will remember, but what good will remembering do him then? He will cry out: "If only I had sent forth something for my life!" (89:21-24)

فَارْتَقِبْ يَوْمَ تَأْتِي السَّمَاءُ بِدُخَانٍ مُبِينٍ (10) يَغْشَى النَّاسَ هَذَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (11) رَبَّنَا اكْشِفْ عَنَّا الْعَذَابَ إِنَّا مُؤْمِنُونَ (12) أَنَّى لَهُمُ الذِّكْرَى وَقَدْ جَاءَهُمْ رَسُولٌ مُبِينٌ (13)

Then watch for the Day when the sky will bring forth visible smoke, enveloping mankind—this is a painful torment! "Our Lord, remove the torment from us! We are now believers!" But how can the reminder benefit them now, when a clear messenger had already come to them? (44:10-13)

These two verses do mention “earth”. But the “bringing forth” of Hell implies an effortless moving of realities, bringing them close, then setting them apart.

يَوْمَ تُبَدَّلُ الْأَرْضُ غَيْرَ الْأَرْضِ وَالسَّمَوَاتُ وَبَرَزُوا لِلَّهِ الْوَاحِدِ الْقَهَّارِ

On the Day when the earth will be replaced with another earth, and the heavens as well, and they will stand exposed before Allah, the One, the Overwhelming Conqueror. (14:48)

This verse, however, mentions a transformation not only of the earth, but of the heavens (the universe, which in Islam is usually envisions as layers within layers of “universes”) as well.

The key idea here is destruction and transformation, not renewal. Yet we do see clear echoes of C. S. Lewis’s destruction of Narnia and its renewal. But its location, and its nature, remain unclear and undecided.

The Outer Reality Showing Through A Shredded Sky

In fact, to us Muslims, it’s a mere matter of coordinates. It matters little where in the Divine creation the Paradise or  the earth that was crushed and remade will be located. In the Milky Way, or the New Eden galactic sphere, or the universe that will be opened to us once the “heaven” of this world is torn open for God and His armies to pour through:

فَإِذَا انْشَقَّتِ السَّمَاءُ فَكَانَتْ وَرْدَةً كَالدِّهَانِ

Then when the sky is ripped apart and becomes rose-red like molten oil. (55:37)

فَإِذَا نُفِخَ فِي الصُّورِ نَفْخَةٌ وَاحِدَةٌ (13) وَحُمِلَتِ الْأَرْضُ وَالْجِبَالُ فَدُكَّتَا دَكَّةً وَاحِدَةً (14) فَيَوْمَئِذٍ وَقَعَتِ الْوَاقِعَةُ (15) وَانْشَقَّتِ السَّمَاءُ فَهِيَ يَوْمَئِذٍ وَاهِيَةٌ (16) وَالْمَلَكُ عَلَى أَرْجَائِهَا وَيَحْمِلُ عَرْشَ رَبِّكَ فَوْقَهُمْ يَوْمَئِذٍ ثَمَانِيَةٌ (17) يَوْمَئِذٍ تُعْرَضُونَ لَا تَخْفَى مِنْكُمْ خَافِيَةٌ (18)

Then when the Trumpet is blown with a single blast, and the earth and the mountains are lifted up and crushed with a single crushing blow—on that Day the inevitable Event will strike! And the sky will split apart, for on that Day it will be frail and crumbling. And the angels will be at its edges, and eight will bear the Throne of your Lord above them on that Day. On that Day you will be exposed—not a single secret of yours will remain hidden. (69:13-18)

إِذَا السَّمَاءُ انْشَقَّتْ (1) وَأَذِنَتْ لِرَبِّهَا وَحُقَّتْ (2) وَإِذَا الْأَرْضُ مُدَّتْ (3) وَأَلْقَتْ مَا فِيهَا وَتَخَلَّتْ (4) وَأَذِنَتْ لِرَبِّهَا وَحُقَّتْ (5) يَا أَيُّهَا الْإِنْسَانُ إِنَّكَ كَادِحٌ إِلَى رَبِّكَ كَدْحًا فَمُلَاقِيهِ (6)

When the sky is split apart and submits to its Lord as it must, and when the earth is stretched out flat and casts out everything inside it and becomes empty, and submits to its Lord as it must—O mankind! You are laboring towards your Lord with great struggle, and you will meet Him! (84:1-6)

وَيَوْمَ تَشَقَّقُ السَّمَاءُ بِالْغَمَامِ وَنُزِّلَ الْمَلَائِكَةُ تَنْزِيلًا (25) الْمُلْكُ يَوْمَئِذٍ الْحَقُّ لِلرَّحْمَنِ وَكَانَ يَوْمًا عَلَى الْكَافِرِينَ عَسِيرًا (26)

And on the Day when the sky will split open with clouds and the angels will be sent down in a mighty descent—true sovereignty on that Day will belong to the Most Merciful, and it will be a Day of crushing hardship for the disbelievers. (25:25-26)

And this tearing apart of the borders of this universe involves a theme of leaving:

إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَذَّبُوا بِآَيَاتِنَا وَاسْتَكْبَرُوا عَنْهَا لَا تُفَتَّحُ لَهُمْ أَبْوَابُ السَّمَاءِ وَلَا يَدْخُلُونَ الْجَنَّةَ حَتَّى يَلِجَ الْجَمَلُ فِي سَمِّ الْخِيَاطِ وَكَذَلِكَ نَجْزِي الْمُجْرِمِينَ

Indeed, those who denied Our signs and were too arrogant to accept them—the gates of heaven will not be opened for them, nor will they enter Paradise until a camel passes through the eye of a needle. And thus do We repay the criminals. (7:40)

Yet again we meet the theme of the wrapping up of the universe like a sheet of paper combined with a mention of the earth, or some earth:

يَوْمَ نَطْوِي السَّمَاءَ كَطَيِّ السِّجِلِّ لِلْكُتُبِ كَمَا بَدَأْنَا أَوَّلَ خَلْقٍ نُعِيدُهُ وَعْدًا عَلَيْنَا إِنَّا كُنَّا فَاعِلِينَ (104) وَلَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِي الزَّبُورِ مِنْ بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ أَنَّ الْأَرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِيَ الصَّالِحُونَ (105)

On the Day when We will roll up the sky like a scroll is rolled up for writings—just as We began the first creation, We will restore it. This is a binding promise upon Us. Indeed, We are certain to do it. And We have already written in the Psalms after the Reminder that My righteous servants will inherit the earth. (21:104-105)

The Clearest Verse on Paradise Not Being Earth, Or Is It a Confusion of Different Stories?

سَابِقُوا إِلَى مَغْفِرَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا كَعَرْضِ السَّمَاءِ وَالْأَرْضِ أُعِدَّتْ لِلَّذِينَ آَمَنُوا بِاللَّهِ وَرُسُلِهِ ذَلِكَ فَضْلُ اللَّهِ يُؤْتِيهِ مَنْ يَشَاءُ وَاللَّهُ ذُو الْفَضْلِ الْعَظِيمِ

Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for those who believed in Allah and His messengers. That is the bounty of Allah—He grants it to whomever He wills, and Allah is the Possessor of tremendous bounty. (57:21)

While all this may seem like a confusion of different stories and different takes on eschatology, what is very difficult to appreciate is that the Quran is “music”, a symphony. It never gives the full story away about any matter whatsoever; you have to wait for it to come back to the story, or the idea, or the theme to add a new brushstroke to it, often with mysterious hints of yet unfilled details, pulling the reader in to keep reading.

In my very highly-rated Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners (Amazon link) I rejected all familiar learning methods to use something very similar, inspired by what I knew about the way I learn best, and the ineffectiveness of typical educational books on language. This method is analogical to environmental storytelling (as in Wuthering Heights), and can be called contextual revelation. The scientific reason it works might be that there’s only so much stamina in the brain to expand the neuronal network it dedicates to a particular topic (such as the story of Moses, peace be upon him) in order to integrate large amounts of details all in one go. Rather, what might be best is to give a small number of new details, then move on to another topic, stored in a different neural network, and provide some details on that, while always including some repetition and reinforcement of previous details.

The Quranic eschatology contains no contradiction: Planet Earth will be turned into a featureless and dusty planet. Paradise will become accessible through leaving the “gates” of the present “heaven” (perhaps universe, but it might also refer to the solar system). There are multiple ways to envision what might actually take place, such as a “shell” being removed around the universe, or an alternate reality a breath away becoming open so that our universe remains, but “with the curtains drawn”. If we do not assume that the Quran is contradictory, we can find solutions. But those who wish to find falsehoods in the Quran will refuse to give the pictures time to come to life. This has a good scientific explanation; when we read or hear things we disagree with, blood flow to the prefrontal cortex is reduced, and this is exactly the part of the brain required for entertaining new ideas and visualizing complex concepts.

The Quran is not written for intellectuals. It is written for the human psyche of almost any level capable of imagination. It rapid-fires image after image after image (except in the legal verses), switching topics, coming back to them, breaking Arabic grammar and conventions of speech, and relentlessly attacking the reader’s psyche to break down the walls of their self-regard and arrogance–very often hidden self-regard and arrogance we’re not aware of. The Quran shows you that whatever clever ideas you have about the world and yourself, whatever world of meaning you have created to give yourself a comfortable place according to your own rules, you are building a house of cards. You cannot escape its sight. And this is what even a non-Muslim Islamic studies scholar admits:

Fredrick Denny, a non-Muslim writer, recalls the “wonderfully disturbing experience” one sometimes has when reading the Qur’an, when the reader starts feeling “an uncanny, sometimes frightening presence.” Instead of reading the Qur’an, the reader begins feeling the Qur’an is “reading” the reader!

The gaze of the Quran on the reader’s psyche is unbearable when he or she wants to hold onto their own carved-out space of existence apart from God. There’s nowhere to hide, and He is the only refuge from the terror of His gaze.

Until the earth, vast as it was, closed in upon them, and their very souls closed in upon them, and they realized that there is no refuge from Allah except in Him—then He turned to them in mercy so that they might repent. (9:118)

No Renewal, But Destruction, Angels Descending Through Tears in the Sky, Wrapping Up the Universe, Awakening, and the Reordering of Existence.

In our imagination God and His angels may seem distant, the borders of the universe safely far away, so that we may imagine we will have early warning of any truly disastrous change tearing our universe apart. But the Quran says:

وَنَحْنُ أَقْرَبُ إِلَيْهِ مِنْ حَبْلِ الْوَرِيدِ

And We [God and His heavenly order] are closer to [the human] than his jugular vein. (50:16)

وَلَوْ تَرَى إِذْ فَزِعُوا فَلَا فَوْتَ وَأُخِذُوا مِنْ مَكَانٍ قَرِيبٍ

And if only you could see when they are struck with terror—but there will be no escape, and they will be seized from a place nearby. (34:51)

وَاسْتَمِعْ يَوْمَ يُنَادِ الْمُنَادِ مِنْ مَكَانٍ قَرِيبٍ (41) يَوْمَ يَسْمَعُونَ الصَّيْحَةَ بِالْحَقِّ ذَلِكَ يَوْمُ الْخُرُوجِ (42)

And listen for the Day when the caller will call out from a place nearby—the Day when they will hear the blast in truth. That is the Day of emergence from the graves. (50:41-42)

The image the Quran gives us is that the eschatological event does not involve the traversal of space, but a reality that encompasses ours showing through tears in the sky. Space was just an illusion, a limit on ours powers.

From Earth-Centrism to God-Centrism

Christianity takes the earth too seriously, which seems a clear inheritance from the Old Testament’s strong focus on the worldly fate of the Jewish people. Eschatology centers around earth and its fate. The Quran’s focus, however, is on God; eschatology revolves around Him; He destroys much of reality and remakes it in a new way. This is not renewal, but a case analogical to to turning an artwork to dust and reordering it. And of course, as placed above, the Quran does include the clear statement of the “turning to dust” of the earth, and as stated below, the way the earth will be made into a round ball with no topographical features, just a dusty flat plane, with the light of God illuminating it, and Hell brought near, and the gates of Heaven of opening up to the successful.

يَوْمَ يُنْفَخُ فِي الصُّورِ وَنَحْشُرُ الْمُجْرِمِينَ يَوْمَئِذٍ زُرْقًا (102) يَتَخَافَتُونَ بَيْنَهُمْ إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا عَشْرًا (103) نَحْنُ أَعْلَمُ بِمَا يَقُولُونَ إِذْ يَقُولُ أَمْثَلُهُمْ طَرِيقَةً إِنْ لَبِثْتُمْ إِلَّا يَوْمًا (104) وَيَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْجِبَالِ فَقُلْ يَنْسِفُهَا رَبِّي نَسْفًا (105) فَيَذَرُهَا قَاعًا صَفْصَفًا (106) لَا تَرَى فِيهَا عِوَجًا وَلَا أَمْتًا (107) يَوْمَئِذٍ يَتَّبِعُونَ الدَّاعِيَ لَا عِوَجَ لَهُ وَخَشَعَتِ الْأَصْوَاتُ لِلرَّحْمَنِ فَلَا تَسْمَعُ إِلَّا هَمْسًا (108) يَوْمَئِذٍ لَا تَنْفَعُ الشَّفَاعَةُ إِلَّا مَنْ أَذِنَ لَهُ الرَّحْمَنُ وَرَضِيَ لَهُ قَوْلًا (109) يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِهِ عِلْمًا (110) وَعَنَتِ الْوُجُوهُ لِلْحَيِّ الْقَيُّومِ وَقَدْ خَابَ مَنْ حَمَلَ ظُلْمًا (111)

On the Day when the Trumpet is blown and We will gather the criminals on that Day blue-eyed with terror, whispering among themselves: "You stayed only ten days." We know full well what they will say—when the most perceptive among them will say: "You stayed only a single day." And they ask you about the mountains—say: "My Lord will blast them into scattered dust, leaving the earth a barren, level plain where you will see neither curve nor elevation." On that Day they will follow the caller with no deviation from him, and all voices will fall silent before the Most Merciful, so you will hear nothing but a faint murmur. On that Day, no intercession will benefit anyone except the one whom the Most Merciful permits and whose word He approves. He knows what is before them and what is behind them, but they cannot encompass Him in knowledge. And all faces will be humbled before the Ever-Living, the Sustainer, and whoever bore injustice will have utterly failed. (Quran 20:102-111)

While the Christian imagery of renewal has its own beautiful aesthetics and deeply meaningful corollaries, the music of the Quran tells a different story.

And I like the Quranic story better; I’m both what might be called a poetic, literary and artistic type, and a data-and-logic-centered realistic. I have little in common with programmers who can’t design and appreciate literature, or artistic types with wishy-washy inspiring ideas without philosophical foundation. But what I need most is not the aesthetic, Christian end, but the hard, Quranic ending of the story.

I cannot relate logically to the Christian vision (of course each person has the right to relate to what they relate to); the world renewed feels like being stuck in the same provincial backwater as before; I want to see the actual reality behind the sky, the well at the world’s end, the magic fairy land you can step into that heals all your woes and makes this disaster of a world feel like a bad a dream, the world of myth become reality.

‘I am old, Gandalf. I don’t look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed!’ he snorted. ‘Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.’

Gandalf looked curiously and closely at him. ‘No, it does not seem right,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘No, after all I believe your plan is probably the best.’

‘Well, I’ve made up my mind, anyway. I want to see mountains again, Gandalf – mountains; and then find somewhere where I can rest. In peace and quiet, without a lot of relatives prying around, and a string of confounded visitors hanging on the bell. I might find somewhere where I can finish my book. I have thought of a nice ending for it: and he lived happily ever after to the end of his days.’

Gandalf laughed. ‘I hope he will. But nobody will read the book, however it ends.’

***

Of course religion is not a pick-your-favorite-mythology matter. I have other reasons for believing in God. Speaking purely as a software engineer and analytical thinker who gives no quarter to the slightest vagueness in philosophical argument, I believe the Kalam Cosmological Argument makes God’s existence unescapable, this is the serial or syllogistic part of my belief. As for my belief in the Quran, it is a case of multi-variate analysis; it happens to be the best book out there that affirms the God proven by the Kalam Cosmological Argument, and the God I have known in my heart all my life.

Conclusion

Islam has no concept of renewal because it has no place within its end-of-the-world vision of the universe being made into chaos then a new order being enforced on it. Islam’s “earth” is “as wide as the heavens and the earth”. We do not look forward to a New Jerusalem, but to a new reality.

In the end, it might be said that whatever I said about the positives of the Islamic “happy ending” may apply equally to Christianity’s. But it wasn’t the aim of my essay to prove that Islam’s vision is superior (although it is to me). The aim of my essay was to show that Islam’s like of a concept of renewal is not a gap/lacuna within its eschatological framework. It has no place for it because it offers an alternative; the universe opening up, the true reality becoming manifest, and a Paradise as wide as the universe becoming an eternal home for the Prophets and the saints and those who follow in their footsteps.

***

Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard; and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship slipped away down the long grey firth; and the light of the glass of Galadriel that Frodo bore glimmered and was lost. And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Ali Shariati Poem: Being for Yourself and Being for Others

Dr. Ali Shariati.

From Ali Shariati’s (Farsi) poem One and In Front of It Zeroes Without End (يك ،جلوش تا بينهايت صفر ها), translated by me into Arabic, then into English, for my book Learning Standard Arabic (MSA) for Complete Beginners.

And when you want to be for yourself only; And to be alone; And when you want to be only with the zeros; Your life, like a bent line, will coil around yourself; Like zero.

And in the end, you reach the starting point! You stay, you decay; Like a swamp, like a pond; You become closed, like a circle; Like zero!

But if you want to be only for the sake of “one”; To come out of nothingness and emptiness; And to be a companion of “one”… You must live for the sake of others;

Then your life will move forward like a horizontal line; Like a road; Like a river; And when you want to distance yourself from your “self”; You will eventually reach an inhabited, not ruined and desolate, land; And you will eventually pour into the sea; Like a river …

If you want to be only for the sake of “one”; To come out of nothingness and emptiness; And to be a companion of “one”… You have to die for the sake of others…

Among wolves, among foxes, among rats, among sheep; He rises up and stands;

You will rise up and stand;

Amidst the zeroes,

Like “one”.

Ali Shariati

My new book: Learning Modern Standard Arabic for Complete Beginners

Buy it on Amazon (US): Kindle | Paperback
UK: Kindle | Paperback

Update: I have reissued this book under the title Learning Arabic for Complete Beginners.

In August last year I thought I could start working again, but I was wrong. In March this year things changed and I was able to start working on my book Learning Standard Arabic (MSA) for Complete Beginners, a book I have wanted to write since 2019. It is based on the same learning method as my other book, Learning Quranic Arabic for Complete Beginners.

In over 350 pages, readers begin by learning the alphabet and go on read a fable from Aesop, a story about a boy’s trip through Jerusalem with his grandfather, then move on to modern Arabic poetry. Meanwhile proper transliterations and pronunciation are provided for every single sentence of Arabic, using my beloved Brill Encyclopedia of Islam system.

Buy it on Amazon (US): Kindle | Paperback
UK: Kindle | Paperback

From then on I take readers through what is perhaps the greatest Arabic poem written in the past century or two, the 119-line Rain Song by the Iraqi poet Badr Shaker al-Sayyab.(1926-1964). This poem is the only piece of Arabic writing I have read that is almost as hard-hitting as the Quran, making shivers run through your skin.

In the fourth part learners read a poem by the Persian intellectual Ali Shariati (1933-1977) called One and Beside it Zeroes Without End. There was no proper Arabic translation of it, so I had to translate it from Persian to Arabic, and of course from Arabic to English. It is written in the form of a Persian fable with a strong spiritual meaning it, starting from God creating the world.

It is strange but what I have discovered (I could be wrong, though) is that when I stop trying to work toward big goals and missions, when I simply tell myself that my job is simply to live, to be, with no greater goal in life, that is when I can actually work on the things I love. It is like a dark cloud is removed and my energy and inspiration comes back.

I have written an article about this, and once I’m reasonably sure I’m not mistaken I will publish it. I may be able to come back to my regular work in Islamic studies, but I do not know.

On Using HadithGraph

Link to the tool: HadithGraph

For those wondering about the point of the probability calculation that this tool does I have added a last section explaining this.

I have been quietly working on a tool that automatically diagrams and “verifies” hadiths (based on my hadith verification method), and recently I finished it, and the results far exceeded my expectations, alhamdulillah. The tool is simply a calculator and diagrammer, so that instead of having to do the probability calculations and diagramming manually, they all take place automatically.

Users can use the tool merely for diagramming hadith chains, even if they have no interest in the probability calculations.

See the essay linked above for how the probability calculation works.

Rewriting and inputting the chains

Given the Bukhari hadith (Bukhari #1):

حَدَّثَنَا الحُمَيْدِيُّ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ بْنُ الزُّبَيْرِ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا سُفْيَانُ ، قَالَ : حَدَّثَنَا يَحْيَى بْنُ سَعِيدٍ الأَنْصَارِيُّ ، قَالَ : أَخْبَرَنِي مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِبْرَاهِيمَ التَّيْمِيُّ ، أَنَّهُ سَمِعَ عَلْقَمَةَ بْنَ وَقَّاصٍ اللَّيْثِيَّ ، يَقُولُ : سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ بْنَ الخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ عَلَى المِنْبَرِ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّاتِ ، وَإِنَّمَا لِكُلِّ امْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى ، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا ، أَوْ إِلَى امْرَأَةٍ يَنْكِحُهَا ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ *

Enter the hadith’s isnad in the textbox as follows:

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi

The chain starts from the chief transmitter (the Companion, in this case Umar. b. al-Khattab [RA]), and the transmitter names are separated by ” > “. Note that there are spaces before and after the “>”.

The spelling of the names does not matter as long as it is consistent. You must always use the same exact spelling for each unique transmitter, so Umar b. al-Khattab must always be spelled “Umar b. al-Khattab” in any additional chains you add.

But there is no need to worry too much about getting spellings wrong, because the diagram will immediately make it obvious by making the transmitter show up twice (below we have erroneously spelled Umar b. al-Khattab’s name differently on different chains):

Then gather additional chains for this hadith using hadith search engines and/or takhrīj tools, for example Bukhari #6587 gives us another chain for the hadith:

6587 حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو النُّعْمَانِ ، حَدَّثَنَا حَمَّادُ بْنُ زَيْدٍ ، عَنْ يَحْيَى بْنِ سَعِيدٍ ، عَنْ مُحَمَّدِ بْنِ إِبْرَاهِيمَ ، عَنْ عَلْقَمَةَ بْنِ وَقَّاصٍ ، قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ عُمَرَ بْنَ الخَطَّابِ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُ ، يَخْطُبُ قَالَ : سَمِعْتُ النَّبِيَّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ يَقُولُ : يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ ، إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ ، وَإِنَّمَا لِامْرِئٍ مَا نَوَى ، فَمَنْ كَانَتْ هِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ ، وَمَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَى دُنْيَا يُصِيبُهَا أَوِ امْرَأَةٍ يَتَزَوَّجُهَا ، فَهِجْرَتُهُ إِلَى مَا هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِ *

Now enter the new chain from this second hadith into a new line in the textbox, so that we have the following two lines:

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man

Now we get the following diagram:

And below we have added a chain from a third hadith (Bukhari 3719):

Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Musaddad

Adding hadith collection information

If you wish the details of the hadith collection to show up on the diagram, you may add it as follows:

A > [Bukhari]
B > [Muslim]

That is, the hadith collection information must be enclosed in square brackets. Adding the hadith collection information to the diagram has no effect on the probability calculations.

Important: Using square brackets here is essential, otherwise the hadith collection will be treated like any other transmitter, causing inaccurate calculations.

Adding comments

Comments can be added for your own convenience; they have no effect on the diagram or probability calculation. Comments start with a “#” character. You can add comments before each chain as follows:

# Bukhari 1
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Sufyan > al-Humaydi
# Bukhari 6587
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Abu al-Nu`man
# Bukhari 3719
Umar b. al-Khattab > Alqama b. al-Waqqas > Muhammad b. Ibrahim > Yahya b. Saeed > Hammad b. Zayd > Musaddad

Setting custom probabilities

Each transmitter has a default probability 0.6 (i.e. 60%). Sometimes you are dealing with transmitters who are lower quality, although not totally unreliable. In those cases you can set a custom probability in brackets after the transmitter’s name, as follows:

Transmitter 1 > Transmitter 2 (0.4) > Transmitter 3

Above, Transmitter 2 gets a probability of 0.4 (40%) in the calculations.

Setting probabilities above 0.6 will be ignored.

We are verifying meanings

This tool gives the probable authenticity of the text (matn) of the hadith. But some variant hadiths sometimes contain additional sentences or lack them. Make sure all of the chains are the chains of hadith texts that mention the meaning you are trying to verify, such as “all actions are judged (by God) by the intentions behind them”.

What is the point of the calculation?

The point is simple: you may want to compare one authentic hadith’s reliability with another authentic hadith’s reliability (perhaps they seem to contradict each other). And they both have 5-10 complex chains of transmitters each of which involves a hundred transmitters. How do you know which one is the stronger?

Edit: I moved this lengthy section to the top of this essay in which I fully describe the verification method.

Just an update

The last time I did any serious work in Islamic studies was four years ago, in March-April 2019, when I was busy showing that, according to my hadith verification method, none of the pro-predestination hadiths were reliable. I was never able to finish that work.

I might possibly be “back” and I might be able to continue the kind of work I was busy with in 2017-19. But I cannot promise anything; only God knows what is in store for me.

I apologize to all the people I’ve failed to respond to. My condition worsened in 2019, and in 2020 due to Covid-19 I ended up being sick and fatigued for months at a time. Sometimes for months at time even reading a paragraph of text was more than I could do. In early 2021 I had a minor stroke during the fourth or fifth time that I had Covid-19, and I’m still recovering from that.

But I’ve still been able to do a lot of reading over the past four years in order to cure my lamentable ignorance about many things. A lot of my reading is in academic monographs and essay collections, so perhaps it’s not all entirely useless entertainment for myself. I’ve read 252 books since April 2019, if we count Quran re-readings too. Here are some of the books I’ve read in 2023 so far:

  • Ian Hodder, Studies in Human-Thing Entanglement (2016)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (1964)
  • Owen Barfield, History in English Words (1967 Eerdmans [1953])
  • Neil Rhodes, Shakespeare and the Origins of English (2004)
  • Ahmad al-Jallad, The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia: A Reconstruction Based on the Safaitic Inscriptions (2022)
  • Peter Magee, The Archaeology of Prehistoric Arabia: Adaptation and Social Formation from the Neolithic to the Iron Age (2014)
  • Robert G. Hoyland, Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam (2001)
  • Norman Yoffee, Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States and Civilizations (2004)
  • Kay Redfield Jamison, Touched With Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament (1993)
  • Leslie A. Marchand, Byron: A Portrait (1976 [1971])
  • Second reading of C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet (1938), Perelandra (1943), and That Hideous Strength (1945).
  • C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces (1956) (second reading)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce (1945) (second reading)
  • C. S. Lewis, The Pilgrim’s Regress (1933) (second reading)
  • James Turner, Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities (2014)
  • John W. Chaffee, The Thorny Gates of Learning in Sung China: A Social History of Examinations (1985?)
  • Johannes Pedersen, The Arabic Book (1984 [1946]) tr. Geoffrey French ed. Robert Hillenbrand
  • Jim B. Tucker, Return to Life: Extraordinary Cases of Children Who Remember Past Lives (2013)
  • Ian Stevenson, European Cases of the Reincarnation Type (2003)
  • Ian Stevenson, Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation (Revised Edition) (2001/1987)
  • Ian Stevenson, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect (1997)
  • James G. Matlock, Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory (2019)
  • Bruce Greyson, After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal About Life and Beyond (2021)
  • Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smit, The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences (2016)
  • Jeffrey Long and Paul Perry, God and the Afterlife: The Groundbreaking New Evidence for God and Near-Death Experience (2016)
  • Kenneth Ring, Lessons from the Light: What We Can Learn from the Near-Death Experience (1998, 2006)
  • Raymond A. Moody, Life After Life (25th Anniversary Edition) (1975, 2001)

Among these the most eye-opening one was al-Jallad’s The Religion and Rituals of the Nomads of Pre-Islamic Arabia. There’s something strange and wonderful about seeing inscriptions by pre-Islamic Arabians writing things in a very strange alphabet that, once deciphered, is very recognizably “Arabic”.

l mqm bn ymlk w wgd ʾṯr ḏʾb w ḥrśn f ngʿ f h lt slm
 ‘By Mqm son of Ymlk and he found the traces of Ḏʾb and Ḥrśn and grieved in pain
so, O Allāt, may he be secure.’

The transliteration above does not add vowels because it is not known how the people who made these inscriptions actually pronounced these words. Reconstructing the pronunciation from Arabic would be premature and unscholarly. But regardless of the pronunciation, turning these letters into Arabic makes most of the words make some kind of sense in Arabic:

wgd ʾṯr = وَجَدَ أَثَرَ = "he found the traces of"

f h lt slm = فها الّات سَلِّم = O Allāt [the name of the pagan goddess] make safe / provide safety

C. S. Lewis

In August 2019 I read C. S. Lewis’s Allegory of Love (an academic book on medieval poetry), and I soon sensed that he was truly “a man after my own heart”. I went on to read over 30 other books by him, including his 4000-page collected letters. When I discover one of those extremely rare thinkers who show promise that they can teach me something new, I tend to read all of their books that I can get my hands on. There’s still an important book of his I haven’t read, the 600+ page Poetry and Prose in the Sixteenth Century.

Tolstoy

In early 2021 I read Tolstoy’s War and Peace and saw that he was another one of the greats worth reading. Since then I have read War and Peace two more times. I have also read some of his other major works and his biography. I noticed during my first reading of War and Peace that despite his wonderful insights, there was something “off” about him, a kind of moral laxity. He was no C. S. Lewis or Dostoevsky, men who truly spent their days like candles burning for the greater glory of God.

Dostoevsky

Between 2021 and 2022 I read all of Dostoevsky’s novels (starting with the definitive 900-page biography by Joseph Frank). I used to say that Dostoevsky fills in the missing pieces in C. S. Lewis’s worldview, writings, thinking, or what have you, and maybe that is true.

Dostoevsky’s last novel The Brothers Karamazov is considered his greatest by many, or even one of the greatest novels of all time, but I had to force myself to finish it because, having read all his previous novels, there wasn’t anything new or interesting left for me to learn from him. It felt like a reworked summary of his other works (when it comes to the ideas and feelings pushed forward, not the plot, which is of little interest to me).

And I agree with Joseph Frank that Dostoevsky’s The Adolescent was a really bad, or at least unentertaining, rambling and insight-poor novel. But poor Dostoevsky needed the money.

I will end this article here. I hope to have much more to say about all the interesting things I’ve read.

The Quranic and hadith evidence for prohibiting touching non-mahrams

Assalamualaikum I came across a hadith on Facebook which says that touching any non- mahram woman is harām. I wanted to ask if that Hadith is authentic, and if it is so, then to what extent does this rule apply in our life. I mean I have female relatives who are quite elder to me( 9 years and more) . Is it allowed to shake hands with them or hug them if in my heart I consider them to be like my mothers and sisters?

Alaikumassalam wa rahmatullah,

Touching people of the opposite sex whom you can potentially marry (i.e. non-mahrams) is not permitted in Islam unless there is a good reason, as in a doctor touching a person of the opposite sex during a procedure. There is also an exception for shaking hands with a person of the opposite sex in order not to humiliate them by refusing the handshake. When it comes to shaking the hands of the relatives you mentioned or hugging them, it is best to avoid it, but it is not a great issue if you accept these gestures in order to avoid upsetting them, until you find an opportunity to tell them that you wish to avoid these things in the future for religious reasons. As for elders who are at an age where they would no longer consider marriage (perhaps 60 or more), then these rules can be relaxed. But if they are 30 or 40 years old, then the rules would continue to apply even if you are much younger than them.

The most explicit hadith we have on the issue of touching the opposite sex is the following:

لأن يطعن في رأس أحدكم بمخيط من حديد خير له من أن يمس امرأة لا تحل له

It is better for one of you to pierce his head with an iron needle than to touch a woman for whom she is not halal.

Al-Tabarani

This hadith comes to us through Shaddad b. Saeed who is considered trustworthy but unreliable by many scholars, therefore this hadith is not guaranteed to be authentic and is therefore not relevant to this discussion.

The next hadith is one where the Prophet PBUH explicitly states that he does not shake women’s hands:

Muhammad bin Munkadir said that he heard Umaimah bint Ruqaiqah say:
“I came to the Prophet (ﷺ) with some other women, to offer our pledge to him. He said to us: ‘(I accept your pledge) with regard to what you are able to do. But I do not shake hands with women.’”

Sunan Ibn Majah Vol. 4, Book 24, Hadith 2874 and others.

Below is the chain diagram for this hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 38.69% according to our probabilistic hadith verification method. This score is rather high, since sahih hadiths start at 30%, meaning that this hadith is very high-quality.

The next hadith on touching non-mahrams is the following:

Aisha the wife of the Prophet, said, "Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) used to examine the believing women who migrated to him in accordance with this Verse: 'O Prophet! When believing women come to you to take the oath of allegiance to you… Verily! Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.' (60.12) `Aisha said, "And if any of the believing women accepted the condition (assigned in the above-mentioned Verse), Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) would say to her. "I have accepted your pledge of allegiance." "He would only say that, for, by Allah, his hand never touched, any lady during that pledge of allegiance. He did not receive their pledge except by saying, "I have accepted your pledge of allegiance for that."

Sahih al-Bukhari Book 65, Hadith 4891; Sahih Muslim 1866 a; other collections

Below is a chain diagram of the hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 27.57%, making it close to the authentic mark of 30%.

The above appears to be all of the explicit evidence we have on the touching of non-mahrams.

Evidence from lowering the gaze

The Quran commands us to “lower our gaze”. The context of the two verses that command this make it clear that it refers to gazing at the opposite sex idly and/or lustfully.

Tell the believing men to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates. That is purer for them. God is cognizant of what they do.

And tell the believing women to restrain their looks, and to guard their privates, and not display their beauty except what is apparent thereof, and to draw their coverings over their breasts, and not expose their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers, their brothers' sons, their sisters' sons, their women, what their right hands possess, their male attendants who have no sexual desires, or children who are not yet aware of the nakedness of women. And they should not strike their feet to draw attention to their hidden beauty. And repent to God, all of you believers, so that you may succeed. (The Quran, verses 24:30-31)

There are also hadiths that mention the same concept, as in the following:

Jarir said I asked the Apostle of Allaah(ﷺ) about an accidental glance (at a woman). He (ﷺ) said “Turn your gaze away.”

Sunan Abi Dawud 2148

Below is the chain diagram for this hadith:

This hadith receives an authenticity score of 12.14%, which is not very high. But it is easier to accept such hadiths as authentic due to their uncontroversial contents.

Naturally, if we are commanded to avoid gazing at the opposite sex idly or lustfully, then the same would apply to touching.

Evidence from the hijab

Another highly relevant area of evidence is that which applies to the rules on parts of the body that have to be covered. Naturally, if we are forbidden from looking at a certain part of a person’s body, we would also be forbidden from touching it. For the evidence on the rulings on which parts of the body should be covered see:

Conclusion

From the evidence presented above, it is clear that touching the opposite sex idly or lustfully is not permitted in Islam. The Prophet PBUH avoided shaking women’s hands despite this being a harmless form of greeting, which shows us that the highest Islamic ideal is to always work to minimize contact with the opposite sex. However, the evidence does not prohibit necessary touching, as in a doctor touching a person of the opposite sex during a medical procedure.

The exception on shaking hands

Scholars such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi permit shaking the hands of the opposite sex when meeting non-Muslims in order to prevent humiliating them by refusing the handshake, since in such cases avoiding humiliating the person takes priority over the no-touching rule. Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi mentions that while the Prophet PBUH never shook the hands of women, Umar [ra] did that, and Abu Bakr [ra] shook an old woman’s hands.

References:

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